Fuse no longer a stealth-based co-op shooter, other changes detailed by Insomniac

Fuse is no longer a co-op game centered on stealth situations, according to Insomniac’s Ted Price, and this is just one of the changes made to the game originally known as Overstrike.

Speaking with Joystiq, Price said as development on the game progressed, the interaction and gameplay between the four characters and the weapons in the game were found lacking. The basic premise of the game also changed.

“At the time, when we showed Overstrike in 2011 we weren’t where we needed to be with the weapons,” said Price. “We had some cool concepts on paper and in the video, but ultimately, when we started playing the game, the weapons lacked heft, they lacked impact, and they lacked that fun factor that we believe is at the core of every one of our games.

“I really like playing games with high-impact weapons. Where you feel like you’ve done a lot of damage, and you’ve ruined that enemy’s day, and we weren’t doing that with the weapons we had before. Even though in the video they looked cool, they weren’t turning people on here and they weren’t turning people on that we had come in and play the game.”

Price said the changes to weapons and the characters also made the team “happier with where the characters have gone,” in relation to their backstories and added humor.

“The humor is less campy than we had originally,” said Price. “Now we have humor that’s more sophisticated, it’s drier.”

Price also said the original stealth elements in the game just didn’t work well with four people as it was hard to get them to coordinate. Instead of players focusing on themselves, they will be able to focus on the power of the weapons which they will fuse together with other players to deliver “hard-hitting combat.”

Still, there will be moments in the game where stealth is present, such as the need to sneak up on a group of enemies and perform “silent attacks to thin their ranks before the firefight,” says Joystiq.

Fuse will release next year on PS3 and Xbox 360,and Price doesn’t rule out the possibility of sequels landing on next-gen systems.

“We started this game several years ago, and at the time, people were even less clear about when the next generation was going to arrive,” he said. “Our focus was to create an IP that would stand out among all of the sequels that we knew would be coming at the end of this console cycle, and we didn’t know when the end of this console cycle would be.

“This franchise, like every franchise that we build, we intend it to be a long-lasting franchise. So if everything goes well, you’ll definitely see versions of this game on the next console.”